Changing Thinking 10) Accepting Our Story

Regardless of who you are, you have a story. It might be a simple story. It might be complex. It might be easy to listen to or easy tell, or it might not.

You have a story, now you need to decide to accept it.

When things happen in our journey in life that we do not like or do not know how to process through we can move into a place of denial. We create walls or boundaries around the story to try to come to terms with it. We hide it, minimize it, or deny it all together. It is very common to not fully deal with things and so even if things have been dealt with on the surface there may be areas underneath that need to be worked through.

We need to deal with the truth of our story.

In December 1994 I was abused in a church. It took me a long to reach a point where I could say that. I did not want to accept my story. It took even longer to be able to tell any details about what actually occurred. The reason why….I had not accepted my story. I could not come to a point of sharing the story because I did not want to believe it, I had not dealt with the pain, sorrow, loss, and pain. I had not dealt with the shame and guilt. I had not dealt with the brokenness in my life.

It took a long time and a lot of hard work to go through each of those areas. Finally I thought I was working through the roots and getting to a place of owning my story, but I now realize I still had not quite reached the root because the root had grown. The time it took me to deal with and accept my story had allowed something deeper to affect my life. I had been living with unresolved sin.

Living with unresolved sin in our lives leads us to reject the truth about our story.

I had to accept my part in my story.

Coming to accept my story not only involved accepting what happened to me, but also it meant accepting what had been allowed into my heart. It meant accepting my part of the problem without denial. It meant accepting that I had anger, bitterness, selfishness, a need to control, fear, barriers, trust issues, and unbelief in God.

Unresolved sin was a part of my story. I had to accept that.

I had to deal with it!

Accepting our story is not just about accepting that tragedy and pain have touched our life. It also means accepting how we have responded to the tragedy. It means examining our lives and accepting that it is easy for sin to enter into our heads and our hearts during our journey.

Until we come to terms with and accept our story as real, all parts of it, we will live with unresolved issues. We will never find true healing and hope. If you are not yet at a place where you can tell your story without hiding or denying any parts of it, and with taking responsibility for the parts you played in the story then there are likely unresolved issues.

Take a hard look. Take it before the Lord and ask him to tell you the story and show you what is left unresolved. Trust that he wants our healing and restoration and through Him it is possible!